I run tight servers and have no need for modules, nor the desire for the ever so slight security risk having them enable opens.

Despite having USE="-modules", I've recently started to see kmod and modutil be fetched when I do an "emerge --update --newuse --deep --with-bdeps=y @world".

Those two seem to have a dependency loop going, but that doesn't matter since kmod won't compile anymore, if I force it with a "emerge --nodep kmod" command. Apparently it doesn't like that some globals are not set telling it where modules are stored.

Of course, those globals are not set because I'M NOT USING MODULES, nor do I wish too.

I suggest you post the exact errors. I have a system with MODULES=n in the kernel, and sys-apps/kmod installed fine. Obviously, its presence is pointless, but if the kernel is not configured to support module loading, then the presence of user tools to load modules does not affect the security situation.